Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Mars

This does not mean mountain lions, or cougars, or any big cats. This means domesticated cats that got free and are now "wild". "The proposal would allow licensed hunters to kill free-roaming cats, including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar..."

So if you live in Wisconsin and own a cat, DO NOT let it go outside. At all. Sure they're not supposed to shoot something with a collar but you think some drunken redneck is going to pull out the binoculars to see if Fluffy has a collar or not? And it isn't like those collars are welded on to the cats either.

But before it goes into effect, the results, released Tuesday by the state, get forwarded to the Natural Resources Board for its consideration. Ultimately, though, any measure would have to be passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

At least two other upper Midwestern states, South Dakota and Minnesota, allow wild cats to be shot -- and have for decades.

Every year in Wisconsin alone, an estimated 2 million wild cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds, according to state officials. Despite the astounding numbers, the proposal has been met with fierce opposition from cat lovers...

So it's a bird thing? Sounds like a cat pissed someone important off and now there's hell to pay.

I don't think I've ever mentioned this before but Catt's post from yesterday jogged my memory when she mentioned that Little One wanted to get a rabbit. This is a horrible horrible idea. After months of rabbit sitting, from Aug. '03 to March '04, I have learned that rabbits serve two purposes on this earth: 1) To fertilize everything by constantly shitting, 2) To serve as a replenishable food source for anything higher in the food chain. That's it.

But if you do decide to get a rabbit, get it from a breeder or a trusted pet store. Ours, named Bunny coincedentally, was rescued from a 2nd grad classroom where I assume it was mistreated and poorly handled and cared for. So then we get this thing and it eats through phone wires, shits all throughout the house, pissed on our bed, chewed on electrical wires (never long enough though), and was generally a pest. There were a few good times when it would be on our bed, sleeping or letting us pet it, that it was great but she was so moody that the good times never lasted long. And I attempted to punish it for doing bad things. Like once when I saw it was chewing on our carpet, I dove behind it onto the ground and said NO! It jumped about 2 feet in the air and then ran into its house/guest bathroom. It also dug up the carpet in any corner it had access to.

I believe the worst I ever did was I punted it across the room after it peed on our bed. But she got revenge though. We were playing one morning and I was done and was walking to the living room and it slashed me with her teeth on the back of the leg. Nothing real bad, but I had a nice scratch for about 2 weeks. I wanted to do the right thing and release it back into the wild but no one else thought that was a good idea.

So I am 100% against rabbits as pets, despite the few heart-warming accounts of people who owned rabbits and loved them; there are better pets out there. Please go find one and leave those rabbits to their duties of pooping and dieing.